Sweet & Sour Chicken

Ordinarily, when Sweet & Sour Chicken is on the menu, it's a la jar, or a la can.  A long time ago I found a recipe for Sweet & Sour Chicken made from scratch, and got the can of pineapple ready to make it, since it's one of my favourites!  I went through a phase of wanting to try and make from scratch that which we normally make from a ready made sauce.

However, the can of pineapple sat in the pantry unused until now.  Due to lack of time and motivation to make it.  Jars and cans are just way faster and easier right??  Laziness.

Well actually, in spite of all the steps, this recipe is really easy!!  And do you want to know a bonus??  ALL the other ingredients are ones that are usually in the pantry!  Super convenient.  Apart from the pineapple... obviously not something we ordinarily have. ;)

INGREDIENTS
450g boneless skinless chicken breast
1 egg white
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cornflour

1 400g can crushed pineapple (save the juice!)
1/4 cup juice from crushed pineapple
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup tomato sauce (aka ketchup)
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp and 1 tsp cooking oil

2 small-medium onions (cut into chunks)
1 carrot (cut into small sticks)
1 tsp crushed ginger (or 1 tsp fresh grated)

METHOD

• Combine chicken with egg white, 1/4 tsp salt, and cornflour
• Stir to coat chicken evenly
• Let sit for 15 mins at room temp, or up to overnight in fridge
• Whisk together pineapple juice, vinegar, tomato sauce, 1/4 tsp salt, and brown sugar
• Heat large frying pan over high heat
• Pour 1 tbsp oil into pan and swirl to coat
• Make sure the pan is very hot, and then put the chicken in in one layer to fry untouched for 1 min
• Flip and fry other side the same for 1 min.  Chicken should still be pink-ish in the middle
• Put chicken to the side on a clean plate
• Turn heat to medium
• Add remaining oil, and add the ginger, onion and carrots
• Cook 5 mins or until soft
• Add pineapple chunks and the sauce mixture
• Turn the heat to high until the sauce simmers
• Add the chicken back in when it does
• Cook until the chicken is cooked through.
• Taste the sauce and add some more brown sugar if you like
• Don't forget to season with salt, and if you feel like something is missing, toss in some sweet chilli sauce!

Well.  I thought it smelled a bit weird.  But OH MY GOODNESS does it taste amazing!!!!!!!!!!! The excessive use of exclamation marks is definitely justified.  Seriously the BEST Sweet & Sour Chicken sauce I've ever had.  Even better than bought ones!!!  I'm not even kidding.  We will never buy ready made jar/can sauces for it again.  And SO easy!!

A few adjustments I made were adding some Sweet Chilli Sauce, and about 1/4 cup water to just water down the sauce a little bit.  Also, the original recipe called for 2 capsicums as the vegetables (not onions and carrot) but we didn't have any of them so I improvised and it was still amazing.  I think in future, if we have capsicum, I will definitely use only one small onion, carrot, and capsicum.  A good balance of veges!!  Oh, and I also chucked in some peas towards the end.  Gotta have some green hehe :)

Another thing is that the step with the egg and cornflour on the chicken... seems like a bit of a waste of time and a bit messy.  Not sure what it's supposed to achieve so will skip it next time, but still pre-cook the chicken.   :)

Recipe Inspiration: www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sweet_and_sour_chicken/